Translator for the Ghosts
by Ten-Faced
Summary: Aria Planetes, known as 'IA' on her psychic blog, has grown up seeing the shades of the dead on a daily basis with her ghost friend and mentor. Nothing paranormal really scares her. Or so she thinks. When the young shaman is dragged into her school's haunted history, she might just join the ghosts she sees so much. For solitaryloner's Stress Relief contest.
1. Chapter 1

It was a bright, sunny, hot day, what one could and most likely would call a great day. The summer sun beat down on everyone, and maybe most of the people were happy with the pleasant weather.

Not so much for Aria Planetes. The young, tomboyish girl was trying to hold back tears as she trudged back home. Despite not being like the average girl around age six, the boys playing soccer had refused to let her play, all because she was a girl, and they didn't want to have to hang around the girl.

Angry at the boys, she desperately wished to someone that rain, heavy and sudden, would fall and ruin this nice weather so the boys wouldn't be able to play. Maybe even get sick. It would have served them right.

At a section where two roads crossed, Aria reached up and pushed the button to alert the traffic lights that there was someone who wanted to get to the other side legally. Almost immediately, the red hand turned off, and the white humanoid figure lit up.

That was where Aria made her first mistake. Instead of looking both sides like her mother and her teacher had always told her to do, she simply began walking, eyes focused on the black asphalt and white paint. Her hair, shortly cut because she had gotten gum stuck in its strands some time ago, ruffled slightly in a small breeze that felt good against her sweaty skin.

Halfway across, Aria found her legs suddenly seizing up, and she froze, unable to move forward. In paralysis, she struggled and tried to call for help.

That might have been fine, but at that exact moment, a car filled with drug dealers on the run from two police cruisers were speeding down the quiet roads, heading right to her. To swerve could give the cops that extra edge they needed to arrest the criminals, and they'd done far worse than running down some kid who didn't have the sense to move when there was a speeding car coming their way.

Aria tried to scream, but she was paralyzed. The strange force was creeping up her legs, and try as she might, there was just no way she could even move a muscle. Her clear blue eyes widened in fear and horror, knowing even at that young age that this would be her end.

_No!_

The voice was male, but it was as if it had been someone in her head speaking. Suddenly, her legs unfroze, and with strength and reflexes that should have been impossible for a six year old, the girl dove out of the way and rolled to safety.

The car belonging to the people who could have been her murderers shot by, followed by the two police cars with the blaring sirens and the bright, artificial lights on top of them.

They were far too busy to notice the girl crawling to the safe little island of concrete where the pole with the lights stood.

Aria gasped, holding her scraped left elbow with her right hand, and her left temple with her other hand. She hadn't escaped this without injuries, although if she hadn't been able to move, it might have been a lot worse.

She let go of the places that hurt, and looked at her hands. They were filthy, and fresh blood ran down them from her wounds.

_Are you alright?_

There was that voice again. Aria looked up, and saw a blond man kneeling down next to her, his ocean blue eyes filled with concern. His way of speaking was quite odd, because while she saw his lips move, there was no actual sound, and she could only hear his voice in her head. His clothes were nice, a crisp Catholic school uniform with grey slacks, white button-up shirt under a black sweater with an orange tie. He was really handsome, like the ones in the picture books her mother used to read to her back when she had liked princess stories with pretty dresses.

_Those idiots,_ he muttered, hand reaching out to try and touch her, but not quite making contact. _Not even watching where they're going… the worst kind, and they're the ones that stay behind most of the time._

She blinked, and reached out, trying to touch him. Something about him…

Her small, stubby fingers passed through him.

His eyes widened. _Now, don't be scared_! He warned her, almost panicking. _I have a good explanation for this, I swear!_

"Are you a ghost?" she asked, head tipped to the side.

He relaxed. _Well, that simplifies things._

"What's your name?" she asked.

He bit his lip, brows furrowing above his blue eyes in consideration. _I'll tell you,_ he said at last. _If you promise not to look back until we get to your home._

Aria frowned. Why would she look back? It was just the way that she had come, and that she saw every day on the school bus. "Okay."

"I'm SeeWoo."

"You can speak!" she cried out in surprised delight. His last sentence had reached her brain through normal ways – meaning her ears.

"You can hear me normally now?" he was still kneeling in front of her.

She nodded, suddenly uncertain.

"Interesting," he grinned slowly. "How about this?" SeeWoo suggested at last. "We go to your home, and while you eat snacks, I tell you all about ghosts?"

Aria pondered this. That seemed like a good deal to her. A secret for something that she liked to do anyways. "Okay."

"Then lead the way, Miss Aria."

Smiling at her new friend, she did so, trotting off to her home.

Following, SeeWoo paused just a bit, turning to face the four corners. Before, if Aria had looked, it would have been an empty crossing, nothing of interest except perhaps the small shops on the street behind it.

If she had looked now with her just newly-gained sight, she'd have been horrified. At least fifty people, all shades of the dead, were floating a few inches above the ground in a sitting position, staring aimlessly up to the skies as if they were silently protesting to the god responsible for their inability to get to the proper afterlife.

Four corners. Best place to get into a car accident and get your soul bound on earth forever.

SeeWoo turned back to the front, and smiled down at the obliviously happy girl. She'd have to face it, sooner or later, but at the moment, her ignorance would be bliss.

"Oh, and Aria," he told her as they reached her house. At the front of her door, she took off her sneaker to grab her key. "Don't tell anyone about me, please."

"Why not?" she asked, beginning to unlock the entrance to her home.

"I'm a secret," he winked mischievously. "A fantastic secret, if I do say so myself. Keep me, and I'll be tons of fun."

Her mother had always told her to respect the privacy of others. Aria guessed that this was one of those times. And he _had_ promised fun... "Okay," she agreed readily.

"That's my girl," he said, and with the door now open, both walked in. "Now, let me tell you all about ghosts…"

**x**

**~Nine Years Later~**

**x**

Down the streets, a few people, both living and mere shades of the once-living, strolled and floated down and up, each to their own businesses. Amongst them, a teenage girl hurried down the familiar road, struggling with her heavy backpack and the heat of her black sweater as it stuck to her in a sweaty, heavy mess. At least her pink skirt behaved. In the breeze that promised cooler times soon enough, her long hair, just passing her waist, waved and flew around, showing off to the world her pink-tinted locks of pale gold. She hadn't cut it since she was six, because her best friend had told her that she looked nice with her hair long.

Reaching her destination, a house clean and well kept, she reached into her pocket and grabbed her little cat stuffie key ring, and selecting her familiar house key, she let herself in.

"Mom!" Aria Planetes, antisocial girl in grade ten who saw ghosts and thought nothing of it took her shoes off. "Mom?"

"In here, honey!"

Throwing her schoolbag at the base of the stairs, Aria trudged into the kitchen, where her pink haired mother stood at the stove, just taking out a batch of freshly baked cookies. The scent of vanilla and melting chocolate chips filled the air.

"Welcome back," her mom grinned at her. "You're home… and didn't bring a friend. As usual."

"Mo-om!" Rolling her eyes playfully, Aria grabbed a cookie delicately with her fingers, not caring whether they were hot or not, and held it in a strange angle, like she was holding it out for inspection. Iroha Planetes assumed it was to cool the cookie. "I'm selective about friends!"

"Well, tell them that they're more than welcome to come to our house to play."

"_'Play'_," Aria rolled her eyes again, this time more in exasperation than anything. "Because that's a word high school kids _love_ to use."

"I've heard them use it at parties," her ghost friend informed her, pausing his sniffing of the cookie to share new information with her. "Of course, they say it in a voice they believe to be seductive, and then they lead the fellow play-er to a bedroom, but it's still loved."

Aria bit back a laugh, and instead bit into her cookie, much to SeeWoo's chagrin. "I was eating the scent!" he protested.

Her mother, of course, heard nothing of it. "Take a plate, you crazy girl," she mock-scolded, handing her the stack with the smell still strong on them. SeeWoo grinned, and Aria took the plate.

"Thanks, mom!" she ran out of the kitchen, and SeeWoo, deprived of the scent of cookies, ran after the girl.

**x**

**~In her Bedroom~**

**x**

Aria leaned back into her chair, away from the dreadful piece of paper that held her homework. "All done!"

"Your homework, or the cookies?" SeeWoo was still staring at the once-full plate mournfully, as if the sad gaze of the dead could replenish homemade baked goods.

"Both, of course."

SeeWoo, sitting on her bed, watched as his bonded shaman reach for her laptop.

After the near-death experience where Aria had been possessed by SeeWoo temporarily, they'd found that she was given the sight from the event, something that allowed her to see and speak to the remnant shades of the dead. For a young girl, that would have been disconcerting, and would have led to her being locked up in some mental asylum with shock treatments to cure her of something that only deafening and blinding her would have done. Luckily, SeeWoo had stuck around to teach her how to act normal and pass as sane, as well as how to use her powers.

People with the sight were rare, but not that rare. It was just that ghosts blended into the rest of humanity rather well, having once been humans themselves, and were often thought to be normal people. Most of the time, anyways. Aria had once seen a ghost cat.

But people that were shamans? Honest-to-goodness, actual shamans with power? That was much more rare, a one in a thousand. Some people with the sight could have similar traces, but the full powers of a shaman were randomly distributed.

As a shaman, Aria often went around freeing trapped souls from being bound to their earthly prison, urging them to go on to the beyond, their own Afterlife. Already, she had freed about a hundred souls or so, and that was in person. On the web, if people followed her advice, she had probably sent three or four hundred souls into the Afterlife.

Her computer connected to the Internet, Aria clicked on her favorites, and scrolled down through songs and articles about historical figures and chemicals until she was at the familiar blog.

Click.

The screen changed from her home page to her blog. Or rather, the blog of the psychic exorcist 'IA'.

Logging into her admin account, Aria deleted several spam mails, and some from angry readers accusing her of being a witch, and then ran the rest through the virus detector. Coming up clean, she picked one begging for help that had been marked as 'Level One' by the online psychic community.

_Dear Lady IA_, it read.

"_Lady IA_," Aria murmured, grinning. "Fancy. I like it."

"Focus," her ghost reminded her. "Your client awaits."

_I find myself haunted by a peculiar sobbing sound every night. At first, I thought it was just my twin sister, but when I asked her, she told me, swearing on everything she had, that it hadn't really been her. And my sister is someone that doesn't lie to me. So then, I asked my parents, but they said that they never heard anything like that, either. _

_One of my friends says that she has the sight, and she told me that I had a ghost. What do I do?_

_Sincerely, A-Fan-of-IA._

Aria turned in her swivel chair to face SeeWoo, who had already read ahead with his super-fast reading skills. "What do you think?"

"Sight, ghost, sobbing…" he shrugged. "It's real, if he's describing them accurately."

She didn't ask what to do. This was still a part of her training, to see if she could name a solution that would work best. "Incense, or a cup of holy water in the kitchen, because that's where the spirit of family is strongest," she listed, pulling up her memories. "If the room where the sobbing can be heard, some sort of food should be put there, as well as a pair of slippers so they'll 'eat' and leave on their journey to the Afterlife."

SeeWoo nodded, approval clear on his face. "And then, if that doesn't work…" he prompted.

"Call an exorcist or a shaman."

He nodded to the glowing screen. "Your haunted customer awaits."

"Customer, my foot," Aria grumbled, her fingers flying over the keyboard as she quickly typed in the words. "I do this for free."

"And your teacher lists them so that you'll get your volunteer hours," SeeWoo reminded her. Not that she needed it, but… "It'll eventually come in handy."

Ms. Stockley, who told Aria to call her Miriam after school times. The pale haired woman, on the first day of school back in grade eight, had looked up when she and SeeWoo had walked in, and had seen the ghost boy. Aria hadn't known the English teacher could see SeeWoo until she had called them to her after class to ask about him quietly.

Aria remembered being more shocked than she had ever been in her entire life. Even SeeWoo had been surprised, something he later admitted under intense questioning from her.

Miriam had smiled faintly, and promised to keep it a secret. From then on, they'd become friends of a sort, although to others it would have been seen as a mentor and a pupil. Some people even thought they were related.

After half a year, when she mentioned her blog to the young teacher. Miriam had suggested that she register herself under some kind of organization so that she'd be able to get volunteer hours from helping people. She'd be able to remain anonymous, which had been a relief to Aria and SeeWoo. They didn't want people asking what their little ghosty was thinking of.

"Send," she muttered, her solution being sent to the poor guy. And, about ten minutes of community service added themselves to her psychic volunteer tracking community account that she had managed to sync with her blog. It had taken a few secret payments, and some kind of hacking that SeeWoo had done for her, but now, whenever she sent replies, about ten minutes would be added on each. Sometimes, even an hour or two, depending on the problem. Mostly, the Level One problems just gave her ten minutes for effort and electricity spent on reading the problem. She would get more time if she solved the higher levelled ones, but she only did them to learn. Aria would have preferred not having a ridiculous amount of time, like a thousand hours. Already, she was at a hundred and she was beginning grade ten.

The other e-mails just proved to be some kind of things that SeeWoo guessed to be animals living in the rafters, or mischievous siblings playing tricks. So, today, she'd managed to get ten minutes added on. Yay.

"And now you can read about cases of haunting in modern day sites," he suggested, pointing to the book she had borrowed from the school library.

"Oh, no, Aria," she lowered her voice, a bad imitation of SeeWoo's polite, polished voice. "You most certainly may not take a nap, because you being tired doesn't affect your learning at all."

"Fine," SeeWoo allowed. "Take a nap. I'll wake you up in an hour."

"You do that," she agreed, rolling off her socks and crawling under her blanket. Her head hit the pillow, and within moments she was asleep.

Twenty minutes later, her mom came to check on her, but quietened when she saw her daughter asleep. If she had had the sight, she might have been outraged at the blond, handsome boy watching Aria sleep, but oblivious, she only rearranged the blankets covering her and left to make supper.

* * *

For solitaryloner's supernatural contest, because I feel that all of my other ideas are just too centered around romance.

The idea for this came when I listened to the IA song, A Tale of Six Trillion Years and a Night, as well as the covers by Ikasan, Vivienne, and Soraru. Best covers ever. Don't ask how this came from that song, because I don't know.

The way things work here... most of those are based on things I remember reading and hearing about in Korean myths and others. So, don't quote me on this. I own nothing.

Review!


	2. Chapter 2

True to his word, SeeWoo woke Aria up the moment the little, thin third hand that showed the seconds passing by landed on the exact place from sixty minutes ago. "Aria, get up, or I'm possessing you again."

She was up in an instant. "I'm awake!" she half shouted, fumbling to get out of her warm, cozy bed. "No need to do that again!"

Aria had no memories of that incident when SeeWoo had actually taken over her body when she refused to get up, but her mother had been concerned with her odd behaviour, and only when the two had gone to a therapist of some sort did she begin to learn just what had happened.

Coming home, she had locked herself into her room and grilled SeeWoo on everything he'd done while in a physical shell again. Much to her horror, she learned that SeeWoo had tried to act like her, even pitching his voice to be higher than his high tenor, failing rather miserably, and acting much too friendly and loud to be her. She had a sneaking suspicion that he had done the job in a crappy way on purpose to teach her a lesson.

And it seemed he was thinking of the same events. "Glad to see you learnt your lesson," he smiled down at her angelically, when in reality, he was the devil incarnate. "Now go down and set the table. Your mother's nearly done cooking dinner."

The fear in her veins cooled down a bit, and the energy left her legs. Still, she didn't want to 'recharge' them with adrenaline, so she trudged down the stairs to the kitchen, where her mother was taking something off the stove.

"Aria, set the table, would you?" she asked her while ladling the stew into three separate bowls.

Grabbing a few spoons from a drawer, Aria did so, and then filled the cups with water.

"Oliver!" her mother yelled down to the basement, trying to get her voice to be heard through the distance, the sounds from the television he was undoubtedly watching, and the door. "Dinnertime!"

Aria heard an extremely muffled "Coming!"

So, all in all, just a normal end to a normal day for her. She sat down, and chirped her hello's to her father, who also sat in his seat, rubbing his messy hair. A shaggy lock of hair covered one of his eyes, while the other golden one looked around lazily. Both her parents had golden eyes, and she hadn't inherited them. Aria had gotten her blue eyes from her grandfather.

"How was school?" he asked.

"Good. How was work?"

"I got fired. We're all going to be homeless bums on the street," he told her, face perfectly straight.

"Again?" she shook her head in mock outrage. "Daddy, you have to stop planning world domination at work!"

"My deepest fear is that one day, all of those things you joke about will actually happen," her mother sighed, slipping into her seat.

"You mean that daddy _will_ actually crash a plane into the building, burn it down, sell all the stocks and instead replace them with clown napkins, or buy a ton of pepper spray?"

"I would never replace the stocks with _clown_ napkins!" he objected, halting his shovelling of stew into his mouth to defend himself. "Maybe something else, but not clowns. I hate clowns."

"We know," mother and daughter chorused, and Aria heard SeeWoo snicker. He was actually the reason for her father's irrational phobia for painted people in oversized shoes. When she had been ten, they'd gone to the circus, and Aria hadn't gotten a chance to get some kind of food with steam coming off it for SeeWoo. Annoyed at the loud place where he couldn't get 'nutrition' (because he claimed he was a growing boy, despite the impossibility of that), SeeWoo had possessed a clown and scared her father badly. Very badly. Very, _very_ badly. So badly, that he, to this day, were still wary of clowns, and sometimes women who caked makeup onto their faces like it was Halloween.

Personally, she rather liked them (the clowns, that is, not the makeup-addicted women), but if there was one rule in the Planetes Household, it was that no clown-related things ever _entered_ the household.

"But you would do any of the others."

The eccentric head of the company didn't deny it.

Then, there was a period of silence, where all three enjoyed the good cooking done by the hard-working woman, savouring the taste and scraping at the bowls to get every bit before filling it up with seconds – and, in her father's case, thirds. No one else but her saw SeeWoo inhaling as much of the scent possible from the still-warm stew left over inside the pot.

_This_ was why Aria didn't bother with friends – living friends. She was happy in this safe little bubble of home and family. She didn't need any other companionship. She didn't really want it.

**x**

**~At School~**

**x**

"Normally," Ms. Stockley told them, her infamous notebook in hand. "I would assign you homework, and make you do a lot more work."

The pale-blond teacher smiled lightly at the same light of hope and pleading in the eyes of every single student in her class. "But since you've done such a good job going through all your work, and you were rather respectful today…" she closed her notebook. "Mingle. Chat with friends. Just don't do something illegal, because then I have paperwork to do, and I do enough of that marking your papers."

There were a few cheers, and that gave way to students jumping out of their seats to go to their friends and talk.

Aria sat back in the corner, a book open on her desk. Her mouth was moving silently, and unless you were close to her, you would have thought that she was only mouthing the words to herself as she read.

In reality, she was talking quietly to a ghost.

"They're so _loud_," she muttered in disgust, and out of the corner of her eyes, she saw SeeWoo smirk.

"Not as loud as some of the classes I've seen," he offered, drifting around lazily. "Some were loud enough to wake the dead."

"Why aren't you awake, then?" she shot back.

"Ha, ha," he rolled his eyes. "Very funny."

"Sorry," she muttered.

SeeWoo grinned. "Nah, I'm used to being dead. But you know, if I'd been younger, then that might have led to me being a problem. A lost soul, instead of the fabulous ghostly guardian that I am now."

Aria would have sworn on any holy writ that was handed to her that her ghost friend was suffering with multiple personality disorder. One minute, he'd be a perfect gentleman, and the other times, he'd be either this super serious spy, or like a normal guy. Rather arrogant, and loud.

In the silence, Aria eavesdropped on the other talking people, as was her habit. Mindless chatter, plans for the far-away weekend…

"Did you hear?" one of the girls asked her clique in a hushed voice. "Apparently, our school is haunted!"

Aria snuck a look at SeeWoo, but he shook his head. So he hadn't gone around scaring people like a poltergeist.

"I heard that too!" another girl said excitedly. Aria leaned a little closer, and made a small gesture with her hands. SeeWoo, bless his trapped soul, understood and moved next to the girls, so that if she didn't hear one of them, he could fill her in. "You know that they used to force kids to come to school here, like, way back in the dinosaur age?"

"They still force us, you know."

"No, not like that, I mean, like, with police coming in and going all, 'We're going to drag you away to prison and give you crappy clothes! Rawr!' and they'd be all, 'Oh, noes!', but they had no choice!"

What an odd summarization of history that girl had.

"Anyways, so when they got to school, the teachers would be really horrible. Like, even worse than that science sub we once had? And they were all pedos, and go up to the girls and boys and be all 'hey, wanna have some fun?' in what they'd think were seductive, and they'd have no choice but to be butt-raped!"

There was a chorus of disgust.

Aria rolled her eyes and was about to eavesdrop on a different subject when the girl got to the interesting part of her odd story.

"And they'd take orphans in as well, only _these_ kids would be kept there forever, and they were treated so much worse, until they caught some sex disease and died. They say that the bodies of the kids are buried somewhere in the basement of this very building. You know, I always thought that my lip gloss just kept disappearing for no reason, and there you have it," she snapped her fingers. "There are ghosts that are stealing my lip gloss."

Aria laughed. No one really cared, but the few that turned to see what the little shy one of the class was laughing at lost interest immediately, seeing her with a book open. Just one of the tricks SeeWoo had taught her.

Said ghost drifted back to her as the clique moved onto talking about shopping that weekend. "And I thought those kind of girls only existed in cheesy novels," he muttered.

She raised her eyebrows. "You've been in high school how many years now?"

He thought, and nodded. "Good point. At least there aren't jocks."

She flipped a page, purely for appearances. Not that the process of mummifying a dead body wasn't interesting, but really, she had an actual dead soul she could talk to. Nothing could quite top _that_ one easily.

"But I think that story's partly right," he continued on. "Sometimes, when I'm out going around this school on my own, I feel a presence. It always felt weak, so I left it alone, but now, I'm starting to think that they're down in the basement, through all that earth."

"Because earth is where the bodies of the dead are buried, and it nullifies most ghostly presences," Aria recited one of her lessons.

"Exactly," he frowned. "If what I felt was the residue from their presence through the basement, then that's quite a lot of ghosts," he muttered. "This new building was built over the foundations of the old one, yes?"

She gave a tiny nod. "But not the basements," she told him, remembering what the librarian had told them.

The teacher in charge of the library had a soft spot for Aria. Mostly because she actually took out quite a lot of books there, and partly because she was respectful, putting the books back in the right places even if she hadn't been the one to toss it carelessly on a table. So when Aria had done a project on the school, the old man had told her everything he knew about this school, including the bits about the mistreated children.

He hadn't known about the ghosts, apparently. Or, he thought it was nonsense. A lot of the adults did.

"And some schools _would_ abuse children, to the point that some killed themselves or died from the pain and stress," SeeWoo told her, pulling out facts from his perfect memory. "They'd often hide them, to get rid of the evidence. The walls, the grounds, and definitely the basement are popular places."

The lunch bell rang, and she shoved everything into her backpack hastily. "So you think that there are dead kids buried in our basement?" she asked, shouldering the strap of the bag.

"Shh," he raised a finger to his lips. "There are ears all around."

That could have meant a lot of things. Her classmates might have overheard her, and thought of her as a psycho. Or, it could have been referring to the possible dead children. Either way, she decided to be quiet.

"But yes," he told her as they made their way down the hallway, her walking and him floating. "I do think that there are ghosts here. That's really the only explanation I can think of, at least."

Pushing the door painted in the dull blue, Aria walked to the back of the school where a cherry blossom tree grew in the backyard. It sounded clichéd, but she liked to eat there, enjoying the quiet and talking freely with SeeWoo without worrying about other people.

"So what should we do?" she asked, pulling her lunch bag out. As usual, it was a sandwich, and as usual, it was in the container….wrapped in the clear, plastic wrap. "And why does my mom always wrap the sandwich before putting it in the container?"

"I don't know," he shrugged, perching himself on one of the branches hanging above her head. "But maybe we can check it out."

"…you're not going to possess my mom, are you?"

"No," he sounded appalled. She gave it up at that.

Instead of concentrating on her lunch oddities, she decided to ask about the ghost business. "How are we going to check it out?"

"Option one, we sneak in afterschool."

"No," she vetoed that instantly.

"Option two, we check it during school."

"How would I do that? And I'm not going to skip, SeeWoo."

"I thought you might not like those options," he told her, hanging from one arm lazily. "So option three…come before school."

About to give a negative retort to that, Aria paused as she considered it. The few people who saw her would simply think she was one of those academic freaks who got into every single club possible, and there wouldn't be many witnesses. She wouldn't miss any classes, and it was the best option by far.

But…

"Just how early would I have to wake up?"

"Maybe five thirty in the morning or so."

Aria groaned. She could barely get up at _seven_!

"Just get to bed early, and you'll be fine," SeeWoo advised. "Remember; pack your kit, grab some easy breakfast, and we'll be good."

"…you suck."

**x**

**~Home~**

**x**

"I'm home!" she called into the house, before running straight into the kitchen.

"How was school?" her mother asked as she washed the muffin tins at the sink.

"Eh, it was okay," she replied, picking up one of the mini muffins resting on the cooling rack and popping it in her mouth after peeling off the paper. Yum, blueberry.

SeeWoo shared her sentiments, sniffing away at the scent rising in steam over the treats. "Nine years of staying in the same house, yet I can never get enough of your mother's cooking," he told her in an appreciative voice.

"This is really good," she told her mother, pulling off another paper from the baked good. This time, it was chocolate.

"Don't eat too much, you'll spoil your appetite," her mother scolded, and swatted her hands away from getting more.

"Aww…" she withdrew her hands. Aria might have argued if SeeWoo hadn't coughed, reminding her of what she was supposed to be doing. "Fine."

Picking up her backpack that lay in the same spot she had thrown it in, Aria ran up the stairs, trying to beat SeeWoo to her room. Like most of the times she tried, she lost.

Before she could complain about him able to levitate, SeeWoo began one of his lectures. "A ghost of a child is powerful, because they maintain the innocence of a child even in death. That's why some self-claimed shamans used to kill children to bind their souls to themselves, and share their abilities. But if there _is_ a hoard of kid ghosts at the school, you'll need protection."

In her wardrobe, SeeWoo had figured out how to open a secret compartment at the very back, just large enough to put her backpack in there.

What Aria kept in the small space was only about half the size of her backpack. She pushed away her dresses and coats hanging from the ceiling of the wardrobe, and pushed at one on the panels at the back. It popped open, and revealed a messenger bag with lots of pockets. It was partially full, but from the outside, no one could tell what was in there.

Removing her kit, she sat on the ground and began to empty the bag. Out came lumps of crystal, metal charms, semi-precious stones carved in shapes, dried plants in plastic bags, special matches, and some small jars that once held lotion or lip balm, but now held some holy water, oil, or a type of sand.

To someone who didn't know, this would have been the bag of a nutcase, or a cult maniac.

To someone who did know, this was something a shaman needed. The crystals nullified some of the negative energy ill-meaning shades would direct towards her, the charms maximizing the positive energy well-wishing spirits, like SeeWoo, sent her. The semi-precious stones were something to repel weak ghosts, to get rid of them without her having to do it herself. In some rituals, the smoke from the certain plants she carried would be needed, and so she'd have to burn those to aid her process. The oil was used to draw a protective circle in the few times she did rituals. Likewise, the holy water and the sand were for protection against some ill-wishing dead. It was amazing just how many of the dead were too stubborn to see that going to the Afterlife would be better for them in the long run.

"That should be good," SeeWoo told her, running a critical eye over her things. "But maybe pack some candles. Tea lights are good, although the tapers would be better. Putting some oil in the candles and then burning them is a good idea, as well. Shame we don't have incense…"

Aria returned her 'collection', as her mother liked to call it, back into her bag. When she had gone around buying these things, her excuse had been that she had gotten an interest in stones and metals, and then on organic massage therapy things. "It'll be fine," she grinned at her blond ghost. "I'll have you there to protect me, won't I?"

He smiled back, but the expression seemed slight, and sad. "In the end," he told her. "I'm just one ghost against god-knows-how-many."

"Thank you, Mr. Sunshine," she grumbled, pushing her kit under her bed and grabbing her bathrobe. "I'm going to take a shower now, alright? And then I'll go to bed early."

Her homework, she had finished already. When she left, the small smile on his face slipped off altogether. "God knows how many there are," he told no one in particular. Was this really a good idea?

Well, the best training was the ones gotten from actual experience. And Aria was a smart girl, with plenty of potential. She'd be able to handle them easily.

With that, he dismissed the unease from his conscience.

* * *

I got the 'kit' idea from Tamora Pierce's Circle Opens Quartet.

Again, I made up a lot of the stuff from what I heard, so do not quote me on this.


	3. Chapter 3

Aria remembered drifting off into the welcome arms of sleep. It was a nice memory, and despite the edges of that recall being a little blurry, she always loved it.

She did not love waking up to find herself standing under a cold shower. As soon as the cold liquid hit her face, she was dragged out of the realm of slumber, opening her eyes to a barrage of ice-cold water.

Instead of screaming, or swearing at SeeWoo with every word she knew, Aria chose to reach out calmly and turn off the shower jet, and reach for a towel. SeeWoo must have possessed her again when she wouldn't wake, and walked her body into the shower for a 'fresh' wake-up. He had always promised to do it… but she had always thought he was joking. Evidently not.

At least he hadn't taken off her clothes. Even after nine years of being with the ghost, she still liked to be private with a lot of things, often resulting in the male ghost being kicked out of the room, the upper floor, or even the house, depending on how serious the issue for privacy was. SeeWoo often joked that he should have just been born her brother and be done with it.

Drying and wringing out the worst of the dampness out of her hair, Aria snuck back into her room, ignoring a certain ghost that sat on her bed laughing his dead butt off, and grabbed the clothes she planned on wearing. "Leave," she ordered.

Many were the times they had had this discussion/debate/clawless catfight. Today wasn't one of them. Maybe he felt sorry for her because she was wet, maybe he just wanted to go to school to check out the kid ghosts. Either way, he left without complaint, letting her strip off her wet pajamas and change.

**x**

**********~In the Kitchen~**

**x**

Grabbing a sheet of paper and pen, Aria scribbled a note to her mom. _'Went to school early to do project. Ate breakfast. Love you!'_

"If she can read that, I'll be shocked," SeeWoo commented, reading the note over her shoulders.

Aria scowled at him, not saying anything in case she woke her parents. Just to spite the ghost, she swept the muffins left over from yesterday into a paper bag and threw her her water bottle and an apple on the counter into it as well. Nothing with steam for her hungry ghost.

"You are an evil little shaman," he told her as they left. Aria shut the door quietly, and locked it. Shrugging, she readjusted the backpack straps. Her daily load was particularly heavy today. Probably because of her kit stuffed in there, but it may have had something to do with the earliness.

"Suck it up," she replied, taking a bite into a muffin. Oatmeal and raisin. Still good, even if it was cold.

**x**

******~Outside of School~**

**x**

The school was open, something Aria had mixed feelings about. While it meant that she hadn't wasted her efforts…

She really wanted to sleep some more.

SeeWoo read her facial expressions. "Don't even think about it," he warned her, waiting outside the door to let her physical self walk through first. "Even the slightest weakness could throttle you."

Aria stifled a yawn, and made her way to her locker. This year, she had been lucky enough to get a top locker, though it was still only a half locker. Ah, well. Her fingers flew around the combination lock, stopping and twirling without even thinking about it, or looking at the numbers. She'd had this lock since grade eight.

With a click, the lock gave way, and she opened her locker. Books were lined up at the bottom, her tiny purse and a spare rain jacket hung from the hook at the sides.

Aria took off her backpack, unzipped it, and removed her kit. She had also managed to find some tapers, but in the case that something happened, she had extra tea lights as well. SeeWoo's back-up plan that had stemmed from his paranoid beliefs that she'd always find a way to mess something up, regardless of what past experiences said. It was so nice to have a ghostly partner that trusted you fully.

Stuffing her backpack in, Aria closed the metal door and locked it. "Let's go," she shouldered her messenger bag, taking comfort at the weight.

Two turns down, a few hallways and many classrooms later, they found themselves at the door to the basement. Aria reached out and jiggled the knob. Locked.

One of the larger pockets in her bag was filled with objects that seemed random. A pen. A paperback copy of the Hunger Games. White-out. Some rumpled bills. Hand cream. Things like that.

It looked out of place in her kit because technically, those items weren't really for her supernatural career. Those were just spare things, in case she ever needed them.

Now was a pretty good time. She fished out a ring of master keys, something SeeWoo had gotten her somehow. She hadn't wanted to know how, but she was fairly sure it was illegal and involved unwilling possession that the possessed had absolutely no memory of.

It took three tries for her to find the right key. The heavy door creaked open, revealing a black, gaping hole, and Aria winced, thinking of a bad horror movie where the heroine was smart enough to crack a code that no one had gotten in centuries, yet still ignored the signs screaming that it was a trap. Suddenly, this seemed like a very bad idea.

"Put some ylang-ylang oil on the door," SeeWoo ordered. _Ordered_. Not _suggested_ like he usually would do. He was nervous about this, too.

Aria didn't argue, and took out a little glass bottle. Unscrewing the lid, she carefully poured a little bit of the fragrant liquid on her palm, and sprinkled it on the door. She wiped the rest on her arms. She really liked that smell.

SeeWoo approved, but because of different reasons. "Good idea. That'll attract positive energy to yourself."

She returned the glass bottle, and took out a flashlight. Both she and SeeWoo knew that a candle would have been much better, but she didn't like the thought of tripping and setting the school on fire. Flashlights it was.

Or, flashlights it _would_ have been. "Little spy," SeeWoo pointed to a spot on the wall. "There's a light switch here."

Aria reached out and flicked it on. Bare fluorescents sputtered to life, basking everything in an ugly, artificial light. Well, everything was nothing, really, except a set of stairs leading down to another door. She returned her flashlight. "I don't have night vision," she excused herself, beginning to climb down.

SeeWoo followed, drifting casually. "Neither do I," he smirked. "I have sense."

The rest of their descent was narrated by a soft muttering of just what Aria thought of arrogant ghosts who thought they knew everything, and SeeWoo's soft chuckles.

"More ylang-ylang oil?" Aria suggested, pointing to the door.

"Sandalwood this time," SeeWoo examined the door with narrowed blue eyes. "The presence is definitely stronger. I'd say about twenty at least. Put on that jade ring your dad got you when he went to Whistler."

SeeWoo had once told her that his methods he taught her were from Korea. How Canadian jade was helpful to Korean ways, she wasn't sure, but she took it out anyways, and slipped on the cool ring of stone. It may have just been her imagination, but she felt better immediately, as if her favorite blanket had been draped across her shoulders. With firm hands, she took out the perfume bottle with the oil in it and managed to spray it once. The ring of master keys came out again, and it opened on the first try. Aria hoped that was saying something about her luck.

Taking a deep breath, ghost and shaman walked in.

**x**

******~In the Basement~**

**x**

"Hi!"

"GAH!" Aria jumped back, shocked. Out of the darkness a child had popped out. Only this one glowed to her sight, and through her Aria could see the dark wall. A ghost.

"I'm Alice!" she chirped, spinning around and round, until Aria grew dizzy from just watching her. Then, she stopped, a look of confusion on her face. "At least, I _think_ I'm Alice. But I like that name, so I'll call myself that! Don't you think that's a pretty name? Alice, Alice, Alice in Wonderland…" she giggled. "Oh, what are your names? I forgot to ask, but there weren't new people, not for a really, really long time! I like new people, because they have new names and new stories and sometimes even new games! What are your names? I like new names!"

She certainly seemed friendly enough. "I'm Aria, and this is SeeWoo."

The blond boy, ever the gentleman, bowed, making Alice giggle. "Ooh," she cooed, fingering her skirt. Now that she was still, Aria could make out details of Alice's appearance. She seemed to be around five to seven, dressed in a sack-like dress that was ragged and dirty. She must have died in that. SeeWoo had said that ghosts with concentration could change their clothes, or even their appearances, but Alice looked like she had the concentration of a butterfly.

"That's a pretty name," her dirty finger was twirling her dark, semi-transparent curls. "I like that name. Do you want to play a game?"

Out of the corner of her eyes, Aria saw SeeWoo shrug, just slight enough so that she could catch it. "What kind of game?" she asked, deciding to play along. "I don't really know many, see."

"Oh, it's fun!" she chirped. "You hold hands, and circle around, singing! About pretty flowers!"

"Ring around the Rosy?" she guessed.

Alice clapped, smiling. "Yeah! That one!"

"Sure!" Aria held out the hand without the ring on to SeeWoo, and the hand with the ring to Alice, who grabbed it enthusiastically.

"Ring around the rosy," Alice sang, high-pitched and off-tune. SeeWoo winced, but Aria kept her face straight and smiling. "Pocket full of posy~! Achoo! Achoo! We all fall down!"

Aria crouched the moment she said 'down', as did SeeWoo. Alice was last. "Dang it, I lost!" she pouted, and her head fell off her shoulders.

"Alice!" Aria reached out instinctively, but SeeWoo snatched at her with hands that were almost solid.

"Oh, its okay, Aria," the head assured her while the body floated where it had crouched. "We do this all the time! The loser has to remove a part of them for a day!"

Aria might have been freaked out, had it not been for the tens of other ghosts who had tried this trick with her to scare her into leaving. After the third time of nearly crapping yourself in fear, you just got too used to it to care enough.

"I'm human," she told the headless girl dryly. "I can't reattach myself."

Alice blinked. "Aria is human?"

"Aria!" SeeWoo's voice was sharp. She looked up, and saw that there were pale, glowing eyes in the shadows around them, looking at her with curious interest. Twenty her foot, she thought. There had to be forty at the least. She couldn't fight them without a protective circle, or some kind of incense. Aria wasn't even sure if she could.

So she did the only thing she could. "Hello," she called, waving.

**x**

******~Deeper in the Basement~**

**x**

"So you're human? Still alive?" the oldest ghost they had, a boy named Tom, had stepped forward. Aria wondered, though, because Tom had claimed that he was the oldest…

…yet he couldn't have been older than twelve at most.

"Yeah," Aria scratched the back of her head. His presence was pretty powerful. The only ghost she knew that was stronger than Tom was SeeWoo, and she guessed that Tom could give SeeWoo a run for his money.

"Oh, but SeeWoo's not," she added, reminded of her dead partner. "He's a ghost, like the rest of you."

"I see that," he nodded gravely. "But what are you doing here?"

What answer, other than 'I'm here to send you to the Otherworld' would a dead young boy accept? Aria thought fast. "I'm here to explore."

That had been the right answer, for sure. Tom perked up in interest. "Explore?"

"Yeah," she held up her kit. "See? This is my treasure bag. I was searching this building, and the last place I had to go was the basement. So I came down here."

"There's no treasure here," Alice whined. "We all searched, and looked for a really long time, but nothing's here! We're bored!"

"We're bored!" agreed many of the others. "We want to play!"

SeeWoo couldn't give her some kind of signal, with all these people around. Aria was, mentally, on her own, as opening herself up to SeeWoo could have lead to another ghost possessing her instead. Which was something she'd always been told – by SeeWoo – was bad.

"So why are you here?" she asked, playing it casual. "I heard that special people like you could join this awesome club, where you can do and get anything and everything you want."

"Club?" One kid squealed, and soon, the others were repeating it excitedly. "Club! Special club for special people like us!"

Only Tom was still and calm. "People like us… so ghosts, I assume?" At the sound of his voice, the others silenced like well-trained animals, all watching their pack leader and the person next to him with devoted interest.

She nodded reluctantly.

Tom jerked his head so his ghostly, grubby chin was pointing at SeeWoo. "So why isn't he there?"

All eyes, even SeeWoo's deep blue ones, were on her, expecting a satisfactory answer.

Well, _shit_.


	4. Chapter 4

_Well, thank you, SeeWoo, for ditching out_, Aria thought, racking her mind for something suitable. "He's too young," she ended up blurting out, giving the excuse she herself had used all her life, and tried to not wince.

"Too _young_?" Tom's eyes were sharp and merciless on her. "Even_ I_ can see that he's older than any of us."

Her brain raced furiously, trying to spin a story that would make sense. "It's only been ten years since he died," she excused. "You have to be dead for at least twenty years before you can join. How long have you been dead?"

A few kids shouted out numbers, ranging from a hundred to fifty. Others shrugged, but their clothes were from roughly around the same era. "See? Too young. So only you guys can go."

She was, in the words of the kids deemed 'weird' in her school, shooting this completely blinded from her butt. Thankfully, Tom bought it. "So how do we go to this club, anyways?"

Aria had not thought of that, but finally, _finally_, SeeWoo stepped in. "We play a game," he gestured casually, slender fingers sketching a circle in the air. "We have a lovely ring of candles and perfume, and the It is outside, trying to catch people inside. No one inside can step outside the circle, and the It can't go in. If you're tagged, you have to freeze in your spot."

"We don't have candles," whined one of the ghosts. "_Or_ perfume."

"Aria does," SeeWoo assured the girl. "She might not have enough, though, so we'll have to go and get some more. She should also finish exploring."

"But we want to go to the club _now_," Tom stated, leaning back. The more time she spent in his presence, the more uncomfortable Aria was becoming. Something about his ancient youth… "Why shouldn't she let us go there first?"

"There's this very bratty girl, you see," SeeWoo ran a hand through his hair, shaking his head tragically. She instantly knew that he was faking it. "Such a bratty girl, with such a high-pitched, annoying voice like an ancient hag-witch, and she bet that Aria couldn't explore faster than her. So we need to beat her first."

Tom didn't buy this one, but the others did. Alice bound forward, head attached again to her body. She seemed to have forgotten that she was supposed to be beheaded for the day as punishment.

"Aria should go and beat the nasty witch-girl!" she cheered, pumping the air with dirty hands. Within moments, the other dead kids were cheering her on against the imaginary girl that was like a witch. "Go, Aria, go!"

"So excuse us," SeeWoo smiled apologetically, and began to float towards the exit. "Come, Aria, you have a hag to beat."

**x**

******~Outside the Basement~**

**x**

Outside, she locked the door and slumped. People weren't in this part of the school too often, and luckily, no one had been outside when she had left the basement. SeeWoo floated next to her, wiping away ghostly sweat. "I must admit, that was quite scary."

"You suck at math," she sighed, wiping her sweaty palms on her skirt. She hated sweaty palms. They made her feel like she was guilty of something, and she didn't care particularly for the feeling.

"And for that, I am sorry for being a fail of an Asian."

Aria's heart finally stopped drumming like a war drum, and she looked up. "Do I really have to go down there again?"

"Unfortunately. We could have left them alone, but now that we've stirred their interest, it's best to help them get to the 'club' as soon as possible before they start running around creating mischief."

"Why did we stir their interest again?" she questioned, gathering her bag.

SeeWoo began to float next to her. "Because life trapped as a ghost can be quite a horrible thing. Besides, you wanted to free them from this, didn't you?"

Ah, he was pulling the morality card on her. She hated the morality card. She always lost to the morality card. "Life trapped as a ghost. Very punny."

"I rather thought so. Why, didn't you?"

In response, she only punched the air where his matter stood, and almost felt something before it gave way and she plunged her hand into an area of colder air.

**x**

******~In the Office~**

**x**

Aria waited until lunch time before phoning her mom. "Mom?"

_"Aria? Is there something wrong? Why are you calling?"_

"Hey, it's alright!" she assured her mom before she began to panic about her well-being. "I'm just calling to say that I might have to stay behind a bit after school."

_"Why?"_

Aria bit her lower lip. This was where she had to tread carefully. "A few kids asked for my help with their work, and I told them I would."

_Technically_, it wasn't a lie, just as how SeeWoo's statement on how she might have not have had enough candles back with the ghosts hadn't been a lie either, because he really didn't know how many she had. In this case, a few kids _had_ asked for her help, and she was giving it.

_"Oh,"_ her mother sounded surprised, and Aria couldn't blame her for the shock. Her anti-social daughter helping someone? That was a new one. "_Well, you know you could always bring them home, right?"_

"They don't really want to," she outright lied this time. "They'd prefer to get help in a place where they know they won't get murdered," it came out lightly, in a joking tone.

_"Oh, ha ha,"_ Her mother sniffed. "_Well, whatever you've been telling the school about me, I don't care to know, but phone if you want a ride, alright?"_

"Okay," she promised. "See you later!"

_"Bye, sweetie!"_ her mom hung up, and after listening to the blank dial tone, she did the same, replacing the school phone set back in its cradle.

"All clear?" SeeWoo asked from the side. She nodded, and shouldered her messenger bag next to her backpack. If anyone saw the oddity of carrying two bags at once, they didn't stare or comment.

**x**

******~Outside the Basement Door~**

**x**

"My mom will worry if I don't call her by four, give or take thirty minutes," Aria sprinkled the oil on the door as she went over their plan. This time, she used a stronger blend, one with balanced mixes or something like that. "So we have until then to do this."

"And not get hurt."

"How would we get hurt again?"

SeeWoo paused in his mid-air step. "Let's save the details till after the mission, shall we?"

"Fancy," Aria commented lightly despite what he was implying. "Mission? Someone's been watching too much action movies."

"Hardly," he snorted as they stepped down. Aria focused most of her attention on the stairs, not wanting to end it all by slipping and cracking her head on the hard concrete. SeeWoo would never let her live it down. "All your mom watches at home are cooking shows, or soap operas."

"Not everyone likes adrenaline pumping through their veins all the time."

"Nonsense," he sniffed, at the bottom of the stairs faster than her. The light was dim there, and to her supernatural sensitive eyes, he was glowing slightly, paler than usual and just a bit eerie. She gulped at the sight.

He noticed. "What's wrong?"

Aria took a deep breath. SeeWoo had her back. She would be fine. A lot of dead kids would move on into the afterlife. Everything would be good. "Nothing."

Before he could do his ghostly analysis on her and guilt her into spilling her soul to him – again – she unlocked the door and stepped in. "I'm back!"

Tom was there before she could take another step in. "Welcome," he greeted them in a voice that said the exact opposite. He didn't trust her. Well, it wasn't like she could blame him for that . . .

Alice, on the other hand, bounced out, head still attached again. "Aria!" she chirped. "Did you beat the hag-girl?"

Her excuse. "I did," she said proudly, pretending this 'hag' was a person who bugged her on a daily basis. "Now Annie had to admit I was better than her!"

Annie. Only name she could come up with on the spot. She sent out a silent prayer of apology for all the Annies in the world as Alice cheered and danced around her in a circle.

"Since Aria and I'll be the ones who have to stay behind, we'll be the 'It'," SeeWoo told the ghosts as she opened her bag and began to retrieve the candles and the containers for the oils of 'balance'. "You know, there's so many people here . . . Why don't we split you up into two groups? It'll be more fun that way for all of us!"

SeeWoo was turning the charm on. The only other person she had seen him do that to had been Ms. Miriam, when he was getting the teacher to lay off on the homework so she could have learned how to banish ghosts to the other side. It had worked perfectly then, and it was somewhat working now. Aria supposed that kids would always be kids, even in death and suspended afterlife.

"Will we become separated?" Tom questioned, arms crossed. "I mean, two circles, that could get us in different 'clubs'. What if we never see some of our friends again?"

"No way!" SeeWoo was like a little boy, even more than the eternal youth in front of him. "It's like walking in a circle with your friend. You go one way, and your friend goes the other way, but eventually, you meet on the same spot! Just because you have different ways of going doesn't mean you get separated."

He told this to everyone in an extremely insulting voice, like everyone should have known this. Aria tried to not smile as she finished up the second circle of perfumed oil. "Good, I'm done the perfume. Time to get the candles."

As she lit a match, the young girl ghost that had become attached to her bound over. "I want to help!" Alice reached out enthusiastically, trying to grab the bright spot of fire, but her hand ended up going through the small flame, and ended up extinguishing it instead. "Oh!" she squeaked as she pulled her hand back. "Sorry."

"That's alright," Aria assured her as she grabbed another match and struck it against the side of the box. "You were only trying to help."

That cheered her up, and Alice continued to follow her as she lit the candles in a ring, evenly spaced like SeeWoo had told her to. "Can I play in the circle where Aria's It?"

Aria had to admit, there was a pang in her heart at the innocence of the young-dead ghost. She really believed the partial truth being fed to her, and trusted her. "Of course, Alice."

Of course, that meant that Tom and Alice, the only two ghosts whose names she could remember would be in her circle. SeeWoo could banish ghosts as well – according to him, anyways – but in the chance that Tom was stronger, he could be banished as well, resulting in Aria with no backup should everything go south. Aria had a better chance, because she was alive and therefore ghosts within a circle couldn't hurt her.

"Shall we start?" SeeWoo bowed deeply to a few girls as he led them into his circle. They giggled, and that reassured the boys enough to get them to step in as well. Tom grunted, but he stepped into her circle as well, followed by everyone in her group.

SeeWoo raised his hand. "_Aaand_, begin!"

Before they could realize the deceit, Aria ran around the circle, really trying to catch the ghosts while also focusing on feeling their presence. In the circle, their power was diminished, and as a living being, she could contact them without risking herself too much.

Her mind came in contact with twenty three souls held back on the plane of the earth. Exactly the number of ghosts in the circle. "Ha!" she yelled, feigning triumph as she tried to tag someone, but she knew that she missed a squealing Alice as she began to get the familiar feeling of fizzing in her bones. Adrenaline was pumping, and her body was tense, but there was something else too. Something _supernatural_. She was, once again, becoming a portal from the mortal realms to the other one.

The ghosts, in response to this, began to glow as they began to be pulled through. Alice and most of the others were happy with this new feeling, this novelty, but Tom wasn't. He struggled, tried to get out of the circle, and even tried to use their mental connection to hurt her. When that all failed, he stood and glared at her silently, arms crossed. A chill went down her back, but she didn't lose focus, and continued to push. "Goodbye," she whispered, a smile on her face.

Alice giggled; Aria thought that she'd remember her forever as they began to slowly unravel into the plasma particles they were made of in their visual forms. She looked at Alice, and only Alice, as the old young girl, in front of both her eyes and mind, was disappearing, going somewhere where she had supposed to been a long time ago. "Bye, Aria!" she chirped, and then she completely unravelled with the rest of the ghosts.

Aria closed her eyes, knowing what would happen next. She'd seen it happen ten times before. A bright flash, like a miniature supernova. Only this time, there were twenty three of them.

Behind her, SeeWoo sighed, and more light flooded the room before they went out, abruptly. Aria waited a second for any stray stragglers, and opened her eyes. The candles had burnt out, and the oil had left a blackened circle. "SeeWoo?"

"All good," the ghost turned to smile at her. "They're free now."

**x**

******~The Way Home~**

**x**

All the way during home, Aria flinched at the smallest thing, and shook her head when SeeWoo questioned her about it. It sounded stupid, but she was just expecting the other shoe to drop. Maybe Tom would find a way back and haunt her, or banish SeeWoo. Maybe she didn't do a good enough job. Maybe-

"Stop worrying."

"Huh?"

SeeWoo didn't look at her. Rather, he was looking at the streets, relaxed blue eyes focusing on the dead souls of the past who stared up to the heavens with blank, unknowing eyes. "You're restoring the balance of nature. If the dead doesn't move on, the living will never flourish."

"Nice of you to try and cheer me up, but I'm not worried about that."

"Worried that one of the ghosts will come back for revenge?"

He knew her so well. She didn't answer, but she also knew him well, well enough to know that he would understand.

"It won't ever happen," he assured her. "Unless they're reborn, but by that time, you'll probably be dead or something."

"Is this fact, or are you lying?"

"Ninety-nine percent of facts are made up. It's all up to the listener whether to believe or not."

Aria walked a bit further before asking the question. "Was I in danger? And tell the truth. What _you_ believe in."

She had to walk for a minute before he answered, but she knew it to be honest words when he spoke. "Yes, yes you were."

"Could I have died?"

"Or worse."

"I see."

"But now you've gotten stronger, haven't you?"

". . . I guess."

"Then that's all that matters," SeeWoo ruffled her hair with a ghostly hand. "Miss IA."

"Hmph." She got her keys and unlocked the door. Her hand on the knob, she decided to put down his attitude before it got too mushy and lovey-dovey. "I'm asking mom to make sandwiches for dinner. _Cold_ cut sandwiches."

"Aria!" but before he could start his fierce lobbying on just why he deserved some steaming food, Aria opened the door.

"I'm home!"

**x**

******~In the bedroom~**

**x**

_IA said: Freed a lot of dead children. Mixed feelings._

_._

_You have three replies._

_._

_YY_bunny said: where did you manage to do _this_?_

_._

_sunset_demon_boy said: I know that feeling. Try something sweet, like cake._

_._

_DELL said: First time banishing kids? Tough._

**x**

******~Still in the Room~**

**x**

"I swear, this guy," said Aria, pointing to the person who called himself - if he wasn't lying about his gender - 'sunset_demon_boy'. "Is always replying to everything I post."

"He is," SeeWoo answered, pausing in his inhaling. Her mother hadn't exactly made cake, like her online stalker had suggested, but she had given them cupcakes, both hot and fresh out of the oven and frosted, much to SeeWoo's delight. "Ever since you started."

She logged out and shut down the laptop computer. "Nice to know I have a fan, then."

"What's wrong?"

Aria looked at SeeWoo. "Nothing."

"Either you're blatantly lying, or you're denying it subconsciously. And I know, it was hard for you to send kids to the other side now that you think over it, but it _was_ actually for the better. They could have turned corrupt over the years, and ended up in a worse place."

"Tom probably ended up there," she yawned. And then she yawned again.

SeeWoo nudged at the hand holding the cupcake, making the skin feel tingly. "Put that down, and go brush your teeth," he ordered. "You need sleep."

Just to tell SeeWoo that he wasn't the boss of her, Aria ate the cupcake she'd been holding, and then went to brush her teeth. She did need sleep, though she didn't want to admit it.

**x**

******~Somewhere not too far away~**

**x**

"You could be arrested for being a stalker, _sunset demon boy_."

Ian looked up from his brother's computer. "Sorry for using your laptop and identity, Dell."

His older brother scowled at him. "Get off."

Ian did so gladly. "I think I'd like to meet her one day."

"I think that if she had sense, she'd sic all her ghosts on her."

Despite the half-hearted threat towards him, Ian still laughed as he picked up the photo that was his current treasure, a picture of a girl with pink-tinged blond hair next to a slightly transparent young man with golden hair. "_Ghost_, Dell. Singular."

"Shut up, you pathetic excuse of a Watcher."

* * *

Made the deadline!


End file.
